Washington Post (May 23)
“Mr. Zuckerberg will want to notice that his company’s stock will be finding its way into the portfolios of real investors.” Then he will be able to “appreciate that one of the best reasons for a public listing is the one seldom mentioned: The continual feedback from savvy investors about management’s strategies and execution.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg will want to notice that his company’s stock will be finding its way into the portfolios of real investors.” Then he will be able to “appreciate that one of the best reasons for a public listing is the one seldom mentioned: The continual feedback from savvy investors about management’s strategies and execution.”
New York Times (May 2)
“Nearly two years after the passage of Dodd Frank, say-on-pay is slowly emboldening investors to question executive pay, most prominently this year at Citigroup, where shareholders recently rejected a $15 million pay package for the bank’s chief executive, Vikram Pandit.” But another Dodd Frank provision has yet to be introduced. The pay-gap provision would require companies to report CEO compensation as a ratio of the company’s median pay. “The delay is disturbing.” The SEC needs to implement this requirement promptly. “The pay-gap ratio is crucial to determining whether executive compensation is excessive and to judging the effect of pay gaps on company performance and the broader economy.”
New York Times (April 1)
Congress just passed the “deeply flawed” JOBS Act. President Obama should not sign this bill which “rolls back important investor safeguards from the post-Enron Sarbanes-Oxley law and the post-financial crisis Dodd-Frank law.” If it becomes law, it “is an invitation to a fresh round of financial malfeasance…sooner or later, investors will be harmed by its heedless weakening of important protections.”
Tags: Congress, Dodd-Frank, Investors, JOBS Act, Safeguards, SOX, U.S.
New York Times (March 11, 2012)
The proposed JOBS Act (an acronym for Jumpstart our Business Startups) is “a terrible package of bills that would undo essential investor protections, reduce market transparency and distort the efficient allocation of capital.” Amazed by the utter lack of memory, the New York Times stands opposed. “We know memories are short in Washington. But Enron was just 10 years ago. And the entire system almost imploded in 2008. There is no excuse.”
Tags: Congress, Enron, Financial Crisis, Investors, JOBS Act, Start-ups, Transparency
Financial Times (February 28, 2012)
European companies have been required to report on a quarterly basis for fiver years. This has “done little but confuse and distract management and investors.” Short-termism encourages management to reject good investments simply because they conflict with quarterly earnings expectations. “Data overload cannot enhance company and shareholder interests. Rather than bombing investors with short-term data, companies should explain their long-term objectives, and how they propose to reach them.”
Tags: Europe, Investors, Long term, Management, Quarterlies, Shareholders, Short term
Bloomberg (November 8)
“As China’s might increases, India’s influence flowers, South Korea grows more competitive and Indonesia booms, Japan’s standing is waning faster than Tokyo realizes.” Can Japan adapt? First it will need to abandon the “head-in-the-sand dynamic,” characteristic of the recent Olympus scandal, “that many investors had hoped was a thing of Japan’s past.”
“As China’s might increases, India’s influence flowers, South Korea grows more competitive and Indonesia booms, Japan’s standing is waning faster than Tokyo realizes.” Can Japan adapt? First it will need to abandon the “head-in-the-sand dynamic,” characteristic of the recent Olympus scandal, “that many investors had hoped was a thing of Japan’s past.”
Wall Street Journal (November 2)
“Investors have lost $46 billion on Olympus, Daio, Kyushu Electric and Tepco combined this year, not to mention other scandals over the years. Bad corporate governance is a costly mistake Japan can ill afford, and a growing embarrassment for a country that deserves far better.”
“Investors have lost $46 billion on Olympus, Daio, Kyushu Electric and Tepco combined this year, not to mention other scandals over the years. Bad corporate governance is a costly mistake Japan can ill afford, and a growing embarrassment for a country that deserves far better.”
Tags: Governance, Investors, Japan, Scandals
Institutional Investor (September 28)
“China is putting the brakes on its economy, Japan is stuck in earthquake recovery mode, and Southeast Asia—where the pace of development varies sharply from country to country—is a grab bag of sweets and lemons…. Still, investors say that some of Japan’s better-established companies remain among Asia’s most attractive.”
Tags: Asia, China, Earthquake, Investors, Japan
New York Times (September 26)
A proposal to modify securities listing regulations appears to have gained bipartisan support in the U.S. The proposal would allow small investors to support companies through “crowdfunding, a financing model that relies on collecting small sums of money from many people over the Internet.” Since the 1930s companies have either had to limit fund-raising to wealthy investors or follow the intricate registration process which typically proved “too costly given the small sums being sought.”
A proposal to modify securities listing regulations appears to have gained bipartisan support in the U.S. The proposal would allow small investors to support companies through “crowdfunding, a financing model that relies on collecting small sums of money from many people over the Internet.” Since the 1930s companies have either had to limit fund-raising to wealthy investors or follow the intricate registration process which typically proved “too costly given the small sums being sought.”
Tags: Crowdfunding, Investors, Listings, Registration, U.S.
Wall Street Journal (August 16)
This time European leaders struck “a novel idea: Restore investor confidence by denying investors crucial price information.” Novel, but ineffective. Like many of the half-measures before the new bans on short-selling will not fix the European debt crisis. “Someday economic historians will describe Europe’s reaction to its current fiscal woes as a case study in avoiding the real problem. In the latest episode, regulators in France, Italy, Belgium and Spain decided late last week to stop the decline of European bank shares by imposing a short-selling ban on financial stocks for at least 15 days.”
Tags: Debt crisis, Europe, Investors, Short-selling